


Jack + Grenade + Blue Soldier + Lightsaber

by panchostokes (badwolfrun)



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Character Death In Dream, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Introspection, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-25
Updated: 2020-02-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:47:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,880
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22900456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/badwolfrun/pseuds/panchostokes
Summary: Jack has an out of body experience as he's reunited with his family.
Relationships: Jack Dalton & Angus MacGyver (MacGyver TV 2016), Jack Dalton & Riley Davis & Angus MacGyver
Comments: 10
Kudos: 28





	Jack + Grenade + Blue Soldier + Lightsaber

**Author's Note:**

> based on a very vivid dream I had last night, some minor season 4 spoilers based on some heavy speculation swimming around? 
> 
> doesn't necessarily fit into any of the George Eads Appreciation Week prompts but consider this an entry just cause!

It almost feels like dissociation, an out of body experience, because it’s been nearly two years since he’s been on U.S. soil and while he was coming back for yet another mission, it was a mission that would be spent working with the most talented, cohesive group of individuals he has ever known, only rivaling his Delta squad. 

And to announce his return, he can’t help but make a tongue-in-cheek reference, one he knows that Bozer will catch onto, given that they had binge-watched the entirety of Game of Thrones at one point--he can’t wait to watch the final season with the man, who had been texting Jack non-stop _begging_ him to come home so they can finally sit and watch it together.

He gives them the first clue with a small cannister, filled with details about the mission, a message scribbled on the outside of the container that is rolled through the doorways to the Phoenix--in hindsight he realizes this may not have been the most...safe way to announce his return, they probably thought it was some sort of smoke bomb or indication that he had gone dark, with the ominous way it falls into their hands.

“Jack Dalton sends his regards.”

And like a genie out of a bottle, he’s back in the Phoenix, albeit a little disoriented. He’s half-dressed in tactical gear, his hand is wrapped around a grenade.

He’s happy, happier than he’s ever been in his entire life, but exhausted, too. He just wants to let go of the explosive in his hand, he’s been holding it for quite some time. He’s re-obtained a darkness he hasn’t held since his CIA days, and he’s eager to bask in the light of his friends. But of course he can’t let his cracks show just yet. He’s here to do a job, after all, a job that will get him closer to getting Kovacs, and then he can come home for good.

Despite all of that, it doesn’t stop him from having a moment to celebrate with the team, to hug Riley, to banter with Matty, to acknowledge Desi and relish the fact that they were finally speaking face to face after all these years. He is confused at first, when he sees a woman with long, wavy hair standing behind Desi instead of this “Russ” character he had heard so much about.

But just like what Desi told him of Russ, he doesn’t trust this new character. He can’t get a read on her, doesn’t know if she’s a friend, or a foe. He selfishly hopes it's the latter, so that he has an excuse to show what happens when you mess with Jack Dalton’s family.

Most importantly of all, though, he sees Mac. And he sees how _happy_ Mac is, now that he’s back, knowing fully well that he wasn’t himself before then--the kid was even wearing Jack’s jacket, but as they spend more time together on this impromptu mission, he goes back to wearing his old brown one, the one that indicates to Jack that he was back to normal, back to the Mac that he saved the world with, the one that he would follow to hell and back.

The Mac that he loves, more than anything in this world. 

Matty even takes a moment, amidst the chaos of the mission, to mention to Jack, “he hasn’t been this happy since you’ve been gone.”

Jack takes charge in the official mission debrief, the discussion of parameters and importance, though the mission isn’t that important, not really. What’s really important is the grenade in his hand, absent of a safety pin, and his fingers are tapping nervously on the lever, as if he’s tapping morse code.

It’s Riley who dares to ask the question, with a slight terror, panic in her voice, because she just got her father back and she’s damned if she’s about to lose him again, “Jack, why do you have that grenade in your hand?”

That’s when he remembers, it’s not _really_ a grenade at all, not an active one at least. He had done a little improvising himself, rigged up the grenade as a radio, both a communicative one and a recreational one.

He demonstrates by singing along to the “radio,” much to the delight of Riley and Mac, and as the song continues and he’s lost in the euphoria of being back with his family, so lost that soon he and Mac are on the run, as they always are, from danger.

They’re running with huge, idiotic grins on their faces, however, as Mac turns to look at Jack, “just like the good ol’ days, huh? Kinda reminds me of Cai--”

“Don’t even go there, hoss,” Jack laughs, but his laughter is cut off as he’s caught in a mirror, a shocked expression on his face as he studies his body. He’s shirtless, his hair tousled, multiple scratches across his chest, his shoulder, his neck--one is even gashed across his face, but they’re not bleeding, and in a few moments he’s back in the action, and he and Mac are still running, but now they’re running _towards_ something, towards a vehicle that appears right in front of them.

Jack’s GTO, Riley in the driver’s seat, Jack plops himself down in the passenger’s, waving his hand as Riley makes the motion to switch with him, because he’s just too _tired_ to drive. 

“Are you sure?” 

“Yeah, I trust ya, baby, go on,” Jack encourages her. They make their escape, and Riley proves to be the trustworthy driver Jack knew that she would be, though not without a few backseat driver comments from the older man. Mac remains silent, but smiles as Riley grows more comfortable, and soon the trio are riding off in the open convertible into the literal sunset.

That’s where the story _should_ end.

And it doesn’t. 

They’re back at the Phoenix, and Jack’s face is full of regret, as he, once again, says his goodbyes. 

“But...you just got back, you can’t leave again!” Riley tearfully protests. 

“I know, I’m sorry, but it’s just...one mission leads me to another mission, and then another mission, and another...it’s just one big chain of missions before I can face the final boss.”

He meets eyes with Matty, she’s outwardly expressionless but her eyes are sympathetic, and she nods at him.

Mac, however, has made up his mind, and makes a decision to take the story into his own hands.

He doesn’t even say the words to explain his actions, doesn’t need to, it’s all inferred, that his best friend abandons the Phoenix to tag along with Jack, which, really, is what he had intended to do all along, no matter how much Jack would protest against it to keep him safe. 

Jack doesn’t bother protesting anyway, because he’s missed him so damn much.

Jack finds himself back in some undisclosed barracks, his latest mission is like something out of one of Bozer’s sci-fi movies, down to the blue-skinned soldiers that he’s both protecting and attacking, it’s a rather confusing situation, because the soldiers are tearful, begging for their lives as they’re being extinguished by Jack and his squad, but Jack realizes that their orders are false, that these soldiers are innocent? He elects to go on the defense, and checks in on Mac, who had gone to work improvising a way out of their entrapment in the barracks.

Mac’s crafting of a lightsaber--but this one is more solid, more like the “real” deal as Jack so aptly notes, despite Mac’s murmurs of “Star Wars isn’t ‘real,’ Jack!” and “Though, I _wish_ it was the real deal…” The beam is orange like, and Mac’s lying on his stomach, using it to cut through a metal wall. 

Jack suddenly loses sense of his own location, though, and suddenly he’s seeing the world through Mac’s eyes, from the floor, under the desk that he is taking shelter under as a large, imposing man exchanges harsh, threatening words with Jack, his hands wrapped around a large weapon, a gun, perhaps? 

The last thing Jack hears is Mac’s pleas for Jack turn to anguished screams.

It’s quiet, for a few minutes, a black screen. The credits roll on his life, before his vision is rebooted and he sees himself, reaching out for Mac, sobbing, cause he _doesn’t want to go,_ and Mac’s sobbing too, cause he doesn’t want to let him. 

Another fade to black, and he finds that he’s a ghost amongst the living, walking around his own funeral ceremony. He sees everyone crying, and yet he feels like _he’s_ crying, too. The world is crying, mourning the loss of a hero. The appropriate people are dressed in their appropriate uniforms, and the rest are all dressed in black. Riley is being consoled as she sits at a table, alone, crying harder than Jack has ever seen before. Matty stays close to Mac, as some of Jack’s family--who seem...not necessarily jovial but not necessarily sad. As if they think they’re at some sort of family reunion, instead of a funeral. 

Mac indulges them, his face is dry though stern, anger in the stead of his grief. He listens to their words before he storms off, and Matty apologizes for him. 

He can’t stand to see this turn of events, is just about to change the channel, so to speak, go haunt some other scene, perhaps even to a happier time before everything fell apart, when he re-locates Mac, who is no longer at the funeral, but in a grassy field, with another man. Mac crouches down and picks something up, and his eyes widen.

He feels his heart pound out of his chest as Mac says the words, “It’s Jack. Jack left this for me, he’s still alive! I need to keep looking for him!”

And suddenly, the world seems right again. 

“What do you mean, what is that?”

“It’s a message.”

A message. Message. _Message._ An alarm. Loud, jostling Jack awake as he punches the air before opening his eyes to find himself in a small room, pictures of his target surrounding him, strings making connections on the rat race he’s found himself trapped in for the past two years. 

He reaches for his phone to silence the alarm, only to find it’s not an alarm at all. It’s a phone call. 

From Mac.

“Mac! Is everything okay?” his voice gravels, worried because Mac hasn’t called him in...well, far too long of a time, an uncharacteristically long time...aka...not since he left.

“Yeah, yeah everything’s fine, I just…” Mac quickly answers, before his voice trails into a softer, almost sadder, maybe even...lonlier tone. “I just really needed to hear your voice.”

“I know the feeling, brother,” Jack affirms, clears his throat. “Man, I tell ya, I just had the strangest dream…”

“Let me guess, you died?”

Jack can’t help but laugh in his response, as he can picture Mac, his arms folded, eyes rolling, and what Jack wouldn’t give to actually _see_ that seemingly amused, but really amused face paired with the faceless voice crackling through the phone speaker.

“You know, I did, actually...but...I came back.”


End file.
